Thermoelectric units have been used previously for refrigeration and for freezing water to make ice. Prior thermoelectric ice makers are exempliefied by U.S. Pat. No. 3,192,726 to Newton and U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,053 to Elfing, et al., the entire contents of each of these patents being incorporated herein by reference. Many such thermoelectric units, as well as ice making units employing conventional refrigeration systems, make relatively large amounts of ice of which only a portion is used at any one time. The unused portion is then kept in an accessible storage bin as commonly found in hallways and refreshment areas of hotels, motels and the like. Since only a portion of the accumulated ice is dipped out of such storage bins by a succession of users, contamination of the remaining ice may occur through personal contact during removal of the desired portion. These central bins are often unsecured and easily opened and therefore there is also a risk of ice contamination by someone intentionally dumping trash or chemicals into the accumulated ice.
It has been suggested in the past, to employ a flexible wall bag in combination with a conventional refrigeration system having a separate compartmented mold of metal as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 2,964,920 to Staebler, the entire contents of this patent being incorporated herein by reference. The bag suggested by this reference has no internal compartments but instead relies upon the compartments of the separate mold structure to compress the flexible bag walls into the shape of the ice cubes desired. Unfortunately, compartmented molds of the type suggested by this reference have become increasingly expensive to manufacture and have not found wide utilization.
There is therefore a need for an ice maker of more sanitary and inexpensive construction for providing relatively small batches of ice cubes for use in motel and hotel rooms and in vehicles of all types. An ice maker for these applications also needs to be of a compact and durable construction having relatively small physical dimensions so as to facilitate mounting the unit on the wall of a hotel or motel room or in a vehicle.
Problems have also been experienced in the past with the use of thermoelectric assemblies for refrigeration in that cooling rates were low and condensation of moisture around thermocouples and the like has caused deterioration of the semiconductor materials employed and short circuiting of electrical terminals. The present invention includes features which also will overcome these disadvantages of the prior art.